Unalaska, AK – Westward Seafoods was fined $570,000 by the Environmental Protection Agency for allegedly violating the Clean Air Act and the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act at their Unalaska plant. Though the company agreed to negotiate a fine, they did not admit to committing the violations.

The violations occurred between 2002 and 2006. The state started investigating the problems but after asking for information from Westward seven different times and not receiving a response, the case was turned over to the EPA.

Violations included burning 1.3 million gallons of fuel with too much sulfur in it. EPA air compliance inspector John Pavitt said that violated their air quality permit and created unhealthy environmental conditions.

"When a facility is burning hundreds of thousands of gallons and millions of gallons of fuel a small increase in the amount of sulfur can produce a lot of sulfur dioxide. And sulfur dioxide is one of the air pollutants we regulate under the Clean Air Act because it affects people's health. If you're breathing air with sulfur dioxide in it and you have a respiratory disease, you have asthma, you're very young or very old, you're more susceptible to things like that."

They also did not monitor how much fuel they burned in their boilers, meaning the pollution levels could not be monitored, and they ran generators without air control devices on them causing emissions of nitrogen oxide.

Nitrogen oxide is "a respiratory irritant. It makes your chest feel tight. That's bad enough but there's also another problem. It's one of the main ingredients in smog," Pavitt explained.

Westward also allegedly failed to annually report 80,000 pounds of ammonia stored at the plant to state and local emergency responders, a violation of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act. Ammonia is highly explosive and causes respiratory problems and eye irritations. It needs to be included in safety response plans so that responders and others are aware of the dangers it poses.

Pavitt said that the case took so many years to settle because Westward was not forth coming with information. If they had been, the fines might have been less than half a million dollars. Westward also considered doing mitigation projects in lieu of part of the fine then later decided not to. In addition to the cash fine the company also has to develop and implement management, reporting, and training plans to make sure the violations do not happen again.

Westward Seafoods vice president Mark Johahnson said they are fully complying with the EPA and have been working with the agency since 2007. They have already taken the necessary steps to get the pollution under control and will begin implementing the required monitoring plans over time. Though the company had considered completing a wind power project in lieu of some of the fines, Johahnson said the project wasn't feasible with current wind technologies and Unalaska's conditions. He says he believes that Westward is a responsible company that is doing its best to comply with environmental regulations and do right by the community. The financial fine is hefty but will not prevent the company from continuing to do business.